Happy Birthday Nelson Mandela

It is Nelson Mandela's 92nd birthday today. The United Nations has christened today as Mandela day, a day which I am sure will be a South African public holiday in the near future. For now, it's a day where we celebrate the immeasurable good that this man has done for South Africa, and for African Democracy as a whole. People all around the world are encouraged to take 67 minutes out of their day (to represent the 67 years that Mandela gave in dedication to the struggle for democracy and against the injustices of South Africa's society) and do something for someone that they would not usually have done. For anyone who has not heard of Nelson Mandela, he is up there with the greatest people in the world. His name can be mentioned alongside Mahatma Ghandi; Princess Diana; Winston Churchill; Mother Theresa; Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. These leaders are known for many different reasons, but all have made a difference in the world we know today.

I often wonder how people see South Africa. We have many skeletons in our closet, and the media coming from SA is often about our ridiculously high crime rate, or our terrible zenophobic attacks, but there is so much good here. I am proud to know that Nelson Mandela represents our countries heroes, he shows the world that there is a country here filled with beautiful people just like him. It is days like these, where Nelson Mandela is the number one trending topic on Twitter, and a Google search for news related to his name receives almost 20000 hits, that I am proud to be a South African. This day, and the recent success of Africa's first hosting of the football world cup, put South Africa on the map. I hope that those tourists who visited our country these past few months will go home and tell their friends and family what a beautiful place South Africa is. It really is a great day to be a South African today.

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